All About Oliver

Well, O, you are 16 months and 3 weeks.  I know this because babycenter.com sends me an email each week and I just got it.  According to the email, you are into your five senses now – squatting to look, stopping to listen and luxuriating in touching things, etc.  It’s the truth!  Walking around the nature preserve, you can hear a dog (“da!”) from miles away, you love to stomp over the bridge and slap the tin sign reminding people to clean up poo.  You are so funny when you get something on your hands: dirt, food, grime, and if you can’t get it off immediately, you hold out your hands and give me this look of utter disbelief as if to say, “Ma!  How the hell did my hands get so sticky?!  Do something about it!”

Just these last three days it seems you’ve added much more to your repertoire, too.  Leaps and bounds, buddy.

I think, I THINK, we can finally say that you’ve given your Grandma Turk a name.  I think she may be “Ma-Ba.”  She is ecstatic to have a name, any name, that you give her since before it felt as though you hadn’t noticed her much.

Yesterday morning, a couple of times, you put my cell phone to your ear and started “talking.”  You even put your hand to your mouth and fake laughed.  The things you pick up!

Also yesterday morning, as I handed you your little sheep:

Me: “Can you take your sheep?”

You: “BAAAA!”
Me: “HUH? What does a sheep say?”
You; “BAAAA!”

First time that’s ever happened!

Last night at dinner, we asked you to show us your belly.  You proudly held up your shirt so that we could make exclamations of shock and awe.

This afternoon you told me that a cow says “MOH!”

You also know where your head is (using both hands to locate), your nose (you put your finger to your mouth and then, eyeing us, slowing shift it upwards into your nostril), and sometimes your eyes and ears.

For a long time you have been “brushing” yours or Mama’s hair and brushing your teeth successfully.  And by successfully brushing your teeth, I mean that you scream and arch your back until I give you the loaded toothbrush and you commence sucking all the toothpaste off of it.

You cover your mouth sometimes.  Usually only when you’re done coughing.  You know that you’ll get a “good job!” or an “oh my, what a cough!” when you add an extra little fake cough and cover your mouth.

Did you know that you can moonwalk?  Okay, so maybe not, but you are learning how to deftly walk backwards.  You like to do it when I ask you to do something that you don’t want to do.  It’s adorable, even if it is a little maddening.

You back up into our laps with a book when you want to read.  We’ve started a little tradition – every morning after breakfast and when everyone else has headed off to work, you bring me a bunch of books, we sit on the floor and wrap ourselves up in the down blanket (you even raise your arms so I can get the blanket up to your armpits), and read and read.  It’s delicious.

You listen very well to directions, too, except when you’re eating crayons, sucking on electrical cords or shaking the bars of the gate to the stairs like you’re a convict waiting for his last meal.

You have this rather severe questioning pose when you don’t know something.  You stand with your arms outstretched in front of you, palms up and your face upturned and set in a “EH?!?” look and it makes us all laugh out loud!  The other day I don’t remember what happened – it would be a better story if I did – but there was a noise and then you came running in exactly like this as if to say, “Guys!  I really don’t know what happened!  Seriously!  You gotta know I had nuthin’ to do with it!!”

When we go down the steps together, I got you started on saying, “ahhhhh….boom!”  You also like to plunk down behind me and grab onto my back like a baby monkey as we slide down the stairs together on our bottoms.

I may have mentioned this already, but you love to say “Boo!”  I was behind the kitchen counter and you poked your head around the side, waited until I saw you and went, “BOO!”  and then ran off laughing.

You love your superhero cape because it’s very silky.  As soon as you have it around your neck, you take up the slack and stick it, along with your thumb, in your mouth.  It’s so darn cute, I can’t stand it.

You are VERY jealous.  Last night Doug and I babysat your cousin, Mason.  Mason was a bit of a pistol so we were holding and shushing him and basically paying a lot of attention to him and not, regretfully, as much to you.  You kept trying to get in the person’s lap who had the baby, bringing us lots of books and toys that demanded our immediate attention.  When Mason crawled, you crawled and when he cried, you cried.  When it was time for a bath and bed we couldn’t get you ready fast enough.  Aunt Heather and Uncle Ross came home to find us sitting on the kitchen floor with our backs up against the running dishwasher (sounds like a womb) feeding Mason Mum-Mums and praying that he would stay quiet.  You were sound asleep.

Also last night, your dad went out to get some groceries and dinner, so Mason was chilling out on the floor and I was in the kitchen.  You were toddling around and found that the door to the garage was unlocked.  Because you now can reach and turn the doorknobs, you found that pretty irresistible.  I slid across the floor in my stocking feet just quick enough to find you giving me a mischievous grin and closing the door behind you.  You are quite the little shit.

You are also the world’s best cuddler.  Granted, sometimes you want to cuddle after I’ve caught you doing something bad, but most times you just walk up and give hugs and kisses.  I would wish for you to never outgrow that, but then it would get creepy.  It’s the best.  The absolute best.